In the punishing Philadelphia heat, France kept their World Cup dream alive — but only just. A 1-0 victory over Paraguay was hard earned, and marred by a storm of controversy that left pundits and players alike fuming.
Paraguay, who had knocked out Germany on penalties in the last 32, showed their ugly side in a bad-tempered clash. Andres Cubas escaped a booking after clattering into Adrien Rabiot. Juan Jose Caceres kicked out at Kylian Mbappe and went unpunished. Astonishingly, while France's Manu Kone, Bradley Barcola and Michael Olise were all cautioned, not one Paraguay player was booked — not even when Gabriel Avalos dropped his elbow into the stomach of Dayot Upamecano.
“France beat Paraguay 1-0 in a World Cup last-16 match marred by controversy over referee Ilgiz Tantashev's failure to book any Paraguay players.”
"Paraguay's players were an absolute disgrace," former England goalkeeper Joe Hart told BBC One. "If they were on my team, I'd be dragging them off the pitch."
Former England defender Micah Richards added: "It was embarrassing to see. Paraguay are better than that. Defensively they were so good and they didn't need to get into these antics."
The decisive moment came with 20 minutes left when Diego Gomez stuck out his leg to bring down Desire Doue. Referee Ilgiz Tantashev — whose overall performance was widely criticised for being too weak — reviewed the incident on the pitchside monitor and awarded a penalty. Even then, Paraguay's players crowded the Uzbek official in an attempt to delay the kick, while Gustavo Velazquez tried to scuff the penalty spot before Mbappe scored his seventh goal of the tournament to go level with Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot.
French outlet L'Equipe gave Tantashev a shocking 1/10 rating, writing: "The referee of the Paraguay – France match received the worst possible rating in our newspaper. He completely botched his game, issuing no cards to the Paraguay players." Access Sport were equally condemning: "The Uzbek referee was completely out of his depth, unable to distinguish right from wrong. He fell into the Paraguayan trap. A complete disaster."
There were several incidents. A melee had to be broken up twice earlier in the clash. In the 35th minute, the teams were separated following a foul on Mbappe, which prompted the French superstar to push his opponent. More tension boiled over during the second-half hydration break, and tempers flared again at the full-time whistle as Velazquez had to be separated from France players.
France boss Didier Deschamps said: "There were some insults from the other bench we could have done without."
Arsenal's William Saliba added: "I think the referee could have given a few yellow cards; that might have calmed them down a bit." Manchester City's Rayen Cherki said: "The refereeing? I have nothing to say. You saw for yourselves. How many fouls were there? 30, 40? Zero yellow cards? It doesn't matter, we're in the quarterfinals."
Former Scotland winger Pat Nevin told BBC Radio 5 Live: "Every single dark art you can use." Zlatan Ibrahimovic, punditing on Fox, said: "It was a different challenge for France today; it was about not responding to provocations and remaining calm."
France's victory secured a quarter-final date with Morocco at Boston Stadium on Thursday.